The only way to de-politicise History is to aestheticise it .
Why this obsession with “text-book history”? Why this rancour amongst historians ? Why politicise history ? Why the belief amongst historians, academicians, politicians and students of history that there can be only one version of India’s History that can be true, “authentic”, “faithful to truth” and “objective”?! An email-correspondent of mine wrote to remind me: “As one wit once famously remarked “History is but agreed fable”. At different points in history society agrees to make certain narratives agreed fable”.
In the heat of all this nation-wide frenzied and ill-tempered debate on how History text-books in our schools, colleges and universities should contain only one standard and sanitised version of Indian History, and what should be totally expurgated from them, I am simply unable to understand why my fellow-countrymen cannot approach the whole matter like mature adults with balanced temperaments.
Please let me explain my view on this debate which veers away from mainstream thinking on the issue … and stays right clear away from both extreme positions taken by academic and political camps arrayed on either side of the ideological battle lines. This view might seem “out-of-the-box” thinking but please don’t dismiss it out of hand as being cranky without giving it the serious consideration it deserves.
History ought to be appreciated in pretty much the same way how we all know the world of Art is appreciated. If you think about it deeply , yes, History is Art!
In Art there is no such thing as only one “authentic”, “objective”, “truthful”, “faithful” expression or portrayal of how reality is perceived … There are so many “schools and styles of Art” and several Artistic Expressions of Beauty in the world that have developed over time, aren’t there ?
There’s Realism, Photorealism, hyperrealism or super-realism. … Expressionism. … Impressionism. …Abstract. … Surrealism. … Pop Art. … and many more !
So, why not we accept also the glaring reality that just as Art is variedly stylistic representation or expression of Beauty, so can there be variedly stylistic representations of Truth in the way human History is recorded?
So then, why not let our premier Universities and Colleges (such as JNU, Delhi, Madras, Bombay Universities , St.Stephen’s, Loyola Colleges etc.) be granted the academic freedom to allow in their respective Faculty of Historical Studies the wholesale redesigning and redrawing of the old, conventional way of structuring History syllabus? Let them no more and no longer continue to have and offer outmoded syllabi like Ancient Indian history, Medieval History of India, Colonial History of India, Modern History of India … etc … Let them instead have in their Facultative departments the following suggested Indian History versions or stylistic representations, for example :
— the Marxist studies of Indian History
— the Western Orientalist studies of Indian History
— the Vedic studies on Indian History
— the Islamic studies of the History of India
— Hindutva Studies on Indian History
— the post-Modern Secular-Liberalist approach to Indian History
— etc …
When a young art-student enrols himself in any modern Ecole d’Art of the world today, he has a choice before him to take up studies in any one of more of the different Art styles or schools offered by the Faculty. Similarly, why not let Universities be allowed to offer students a Menu of Historical Studies of INDIA to choose from freely, according to the student’s own predilection, preference or even prejudice ?
Let our young students have complete freedom to study any particular stylised version of Indian history they wish to choose to specialise in, and maybe also in one or two more too, simply as electives….
However, let it also then be made known to them fully well — so that they are fully mindful of it — the caveat that none of the different or varied schools of Historical studies offered in the Facultative Menu is any more “authentic” or “objective” representation of the truth, the whole truth or nothing but the Truth than is any of the varied schools of Art an “authentic” or “objective” representation of Beauty, all of Beauty and nothing but the essential spirit of Beauty … The students should be clearly disabused of any notion that what they will be able to gain at the end of their academic course is a graduate degree in History as Truth … What they will come out with is a B.A., M.A, or PhD. in History as an Art-form of Truth-telling.
In other words, the students should be made to grasp the essence of the Rg Vedic Aphorism:
ऋग्वेद मंत्र
एकं सद् विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति । ऋ. 1.164.46
“Ekam sath vipraah: bahudah vadanti…”
Sudarshan Madabushi